Rooftop Films Brooklyn, NY
Blair Barnes
Filmmaker
Computer Chess— 2:1 by 2/3: Computer Chess, sitrep, and the Sony Tube Camera
Program Description
Filmmaker Blair Barnes discusses his and filmmaker Andrew Bujalski's use of and fascination with the Sony tube camera and its function in their respective projects. Join us for a short presentation about the technical peculiarities of this strange cinematic artifact whether as a phonetic marker in sitrep, or an approximation of period in Computer Chess.
Presented At
Rooftop Films Brooklyn, NY
Film Synopsis
A 1980s-set story centered around a man-versus-machine chess tournament.
Set in the early 1980s, in and around an isolated roadside hotel, computer programmers gather for a tournament that pits their chess programs against each other. The action is centered on the junior programmer of an academic team who begins to suspect that their computer is able to detect the difference between a computer opponent and a human one, and thus is exhibiting elements of self-consciousness. He also learns from another member of the team that the computer had been engaging him in gnomic philosophical dialogue and hinting that it thinks it’s alive.
About the Speaker
Blair Barnes (he/him) is a creative from South Central Los Angeles. He is most interested in rendering the moment to contest and misplace space. Informed by his foundation as a photographer and art director, he enjoys the hybrid mode of address. Formerly he was at Vimeo, where he served as Curator. Prior to Vimeo, he contributed to the production and creative teams at Wieden+Kennedy and VIRTUE, the creative agency by VICE. He’s currently working on Shadow Ban, an experimental verité about occupied Palestine, censorship, and the fidelity to capitalism in relation to the subject. He received his BA from the University of Oregon, and pursued an MFA at Northwestern in 2023.